Jealous?
by Max Alleyne
Summary: Tony goes snooping through Pepper's planner, and he isn't at all pleased with what he finds.
1. Plans

**Author's Note: **Okay, so I had this idea and it wouldn't go away, so now here it is. The chapter's a little short, but I hope you enjoy. Read and review. =)  


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As long as Pepper Potts had worked for him, she had never had plans of her own. Ever. Well, at least not any that interfered with his plans. So, needless to say, when she came in to work on her birthday, a year after his kidnapping, he was shocked when she once again tried to hurry things along so that she could get out early. This wasn't sitting well with Tony, who had actually remembered her birthday this year. Not that he had actually forgotten last year. He had every intention of getting her something nice, but the date just kind of snuck up on him. So this year, on account of her last birthday being so terrible, Tony was planning to make up for it. This year, he actually had a present, and he was going to make her birthday unforgettable. Which he was hoping would lead to it being pretty unforgettable for him, too.

Not that he was just trying to get into Pepper's pants, because that wasn't it at all. It's just that…well, he loved her. He knew that it was her voice that kept him going in that cave in Afghanistan, though he had never told her. They didn't really talk about the time that he was in Afghanistan. It was just referred to as the time 'when he was away.' He liked to think that he was protecting Pepper from the evils of the world, but there was a small voice in the back of his head telling him that she was a grown woman and that it was her right to decide what she did and didn't need to know. This knowledge didn't stop him from trying to protect her, though.

But today, all the Iron Man business was going to be no where in sight. It was Pepper's birthday, and it was going to be about Pepper. Or, at least, it was supposed to be, but she wouldn't stay in one place long enough for him to pin her down and ask her about her plans. She had always worked quickly, but today it seemed like she was moving at the speed of light. One minute she was in her office, another she was in the kitchen, then back into the office. Finally, he had Jarvis send her down to the workshop, where he was working on one of his many cars.

"You needed me, Mr. Stark?"

"Always, Miss Potts." He smirked at her blush, which ran all the way to the roots of her hair. "You've been running at high speed all morning. What's going on?"

"It's my birthday—"

"I know."

"Really?"

"Yes, actually. Which is why I was wondering if you had plans for the evening." He held his breath, anxiously awaiting her answer.

"As a matter of fact, I do. I seem to recall being allowed to have plans on my birthday," she said with a smile.

"Yeah. You do. You're right. You have—you can have plans on your birthday…what are they?" he asked.

"I'm having dinner with a friend."

"Oh good. That sounds like it will be lots of fun," he said, secretly cursing the person who was keeping him from being able to execute his special plan that he had entitled Operation: Pepper's Birthday. Not original, but it sufficed.

"It will be. I always enjoy the company," she answered. "Now, is there anything you need?" Tony was silent for a moment, trying to absorb everything that she had said. He had been a little upset that his plans for her birthday were going to be ruined, but he then realized that she "always enjoyed the company." The not-so-little green monster of jealousy reared its ugly head.

"I thought you said…you said that I was all you had," he said, his voice confused and slightly hurt.

"Tony, it's my birthday. Can we talk about this another time?" Pepper asked, exasperated.

"Yeah," he said, trying to push the jealousy out of his head. "Um…I got you something for your birthday, but um…I left it at the office. I'll give it to you tomorrow."

She smiled, and her smile was brilliant. It was almost unbearably bright and beautiful, that smile was. It was almost worth letting her have the night alone with her friend, just so that he could see that smile again when he actually gave her the present. Of course, he had been lying through his teeth when he said that he had left it at the office. It was sitting underneath all the spare parts on the second shelf of his desk. But he wanted the whole affair to special, and he was definitely going to do his damndest to make it so.

"Okay. Anything else you need?"

"Um…what's your schedule like tomorrow?" he asked.

"I'm going to be in the office tomorrow. I've got some stuff up there I need to do. I'm not really sure how long I'll be. Do you need me here?"

"Tomorrow I'm going to be doing new upgrades on the suit. It would be nice to have you here, you know…just in case anything went wrong. Not that it will, because, I don't make mistakes."

"Right," Pepper answered sarcastically. "I'll be here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have things to do." She was halfway up the stairs before he thought to ask the question that had really been gnawing at him since she had said that she had plans for the evening. He ran to the foot of the stairs and got her attention.

"Who are you meeting?" he asked. She just grinned and continued up the stairs, refusing to answer his question. This bothered him more than it should have. It really, really bothered him. Why wouldn't she just answer the question? It wasn't like she had anything to hide from him…did she? The question ate at him, despite his many attempts to push it from his mind. He tried to ignore it by working very diligently on the hotrod, but it wasn't working. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he managed to smash his thumb before he finally realized that he wasn't going to be able to get this question out of his head. Investigating Pepper while she was in the house, however, was a very bad idea, so he tried to waste time until she left.

She finally left at four thirty, considerably earlier than usual, and Tony set to work. He started in her office, pouring over her written schedule, which she kept in a black, leather-bound planner in her top desk drawer. All he managed to find was that she had blocked off a large block of time for dinner this evening. It made sense. When friends got together for drinks or dinner, sometimes things ran long. Pepper, he knew, was definitely the type of woman who would plan on things running long. That way, if it ended earlier, she would still be on schedule.

Unfortunately, she hadn't written the full name of the restaurant or bar or whatever. She had just written initials in her very neat script: _Dinner, H.H. _ What in the world? Tony wracked his brain, trying to think of some restaurant with the initials H.H. Finally, he asked Jarvis to run them.

"Jarvis, can you scan a list of restaurants and bars in the area that have the initials H.H., please?"

"Will do, sir. May I enquire as to the reason for your search?"

"You may."

"Why are you searching for restaurants that have the initials H.H.?"

"Pepper said she had plans this evening. In her date book, it says "Dinner, H.H." I'm trying to figure out where H.H. is."

"Of course. The list is on your screen now, though none of these would appear to be to Miss Potts's tastes."

"Jarvis, can you pull up Pepper's schedule for me?"

"On the screen, sir."

This schedule didn't reveal anything that he didn't already know. It was exactly the same as the one in her planner, which he had expected. Pepper was too neat to have two different schedules. Dinner, H.H…H.H. could be a person…

And then Tony knew. H.H. Happy Hogan. Pepper was having dinner with Happy. No wonder she didn't tell him. She knew that he would have been insanely jealous, which he was, and that he would want to fire Happy, which he wouldn't. Okay, maybe she didn't think that he would fire Happy, but that's about how he was feeling.

He was jealous and hurt and betrayed. He had put himself on the line all those months ago when he told her that she was all he had, and he hadn't been lying. Yes, he had Rhodey, and he had Happy, but Pepper was…Pepper. She was everything that he wasn't. She was practical and reserved and she held him together. She spent her days riding his ass, trying to get him where he was supposed to be. But she was constant. He had always thought that out of everyone, she was the least likely to leave him. Rhodey was career military, so there was always a chance, and Happy was a bodyguard. Pepper was his personal assistant, who had always been there when he needed her. He had never imagined her not being his.

Not that she was his…at least, he didn't think so. Well, now he knew so, given that she was very likely having dinner with Happy at this very minute. He wasn't all that she had. Then why would she have said that he was? She wasn't the type of person who said things that she didn't mean. This left him wondering when this Happy-Pepper relationship had happened. Had he really been so blind that he didn't see it? Or perhaps he was just too proud to see it. He had always assumed that Pepper loved him…maybe he had been wrong.

He paced up and down the living room, trying to get this emotions under control. He was failing miserably, and before he knew it, there was a drink in his hand. Downing the scotch in one gulp, he had poured another before he realized that he had. Looking down in disgust, he set the drink down on the counter and began pacing again. It seemed that the drink on the table was beckoning to him, and he was completely unable to resist. He grabbed the drink and downed it again. When he realized that he was still far too sober, he took the whole bottle, submerged himself in his workshop, and decided that tonight, he would get drunker still.

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**Author's Note**: Okay, so there it is. It is going somewhere, I promise. Just let me know what you like, dislike, made you want to blow brains out [hopefully there's less of that stuff], that sort of thing.


	2. Puddles

**Author's Note: **So, here it is: Chapter two. I hope it lives up to your expectations. Enjoy your reading.  


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Happy and Pepper were sitting in a small coffee house that Pepper had known about for years. Back when she still worked in the accounting department, all those years ago, she used to stop there on the way into work to get tea. However, when she had started working personally for Tony Stark, her mornings got earlier and her evenings got later, and her morning coffee—well, tea—stops had to go. She found it ironic that while she was making more money, she rarely had time to spend it.

They had dinner at small Italian restaurant uptown. Neither of them had anything to drink: Pepper because she knew that she might get a call from Tony at any minute, and Happy because he was driving. So now they were sitting in the café; Pepper nursing a chamomile tea, and Happy had quickly finished his coffee. The café was casual enough, and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed, despite the horrible wailing of some random college student with a guitar.

"So how do you think Tony did in the meeting with the Department of Defense on Tuesday?" Happy asked. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for them to talk about work; in fact, every time that they had dinner like this, their conversation always seemed to return to work, whether they tried to avoid it or not. Truth be told, they never tried to avoid it, because their jobs were such an integral part of their lives. Being employed personally to Tony Stark was a full time job, as in 18-hours a day. Both Happy and Pepper had long forgotten what it was to have a 'social life' outside of work. There was an understanding between them that talk of work simply couldn't be avoided, and therefore, it was embraced.

"He did very well. Of course, you know that Tony has a flair for the dramatic. I honestly think he could sell them just about anything based simply on his performance," she replied with a grin. When they spoke of Tony, it was always with utmost respect and affection. That's not to say that there wasn't sometimes a hint of annoyance mixed in with it [mostly on Pepper's part], but it was obvious that they were fond of their boss.

"Very true. Of course, given that he's usually…uh…"

"Late?" Pepper finished for him. "I'm good, but I'm not a miracle worker, and—"

"You can't make Tony do anything that he doesn't want to. I know. I've witnessed," Happy finished. "But in all seriousness, how are you? He's been pushing you harder these days." She tried to hide the dark circles under her eyes with makeup, but no amount of makeup could hide the tiredness in her movements. Even that she was good at hiding. He only noticed because he saw her almost every day; to the public, she was just 'The Famous Pepper Potts.'

She couldn't help but grin when he asked her the question. Tony had needed her around more lately, but he didn't make her stay. She was pushing herself harder than she used to. She made herself stay late, mostly because she didn't trust him to patch himself up after returning from a mission, especially after he returned one night, told her he was fine, and wound up with a knee swollen to twice its usual size the next day. Sometimes Tony simply couldn't be trusted to take care of himself, and that's why she stayed. If anything ever happened to him, whether it was actually a result of his adventures in his iron—pardon, gold titanium alloy—suit or not, she would never forgive herself. Hence the overworking.

"Since he decided to start gallivanting around the world in his suit, there's more that needs to be done…and he tells me that he can take care of himself, but I don't know that I trust him to do that. He doesn't want to let anything slow him down, and a visit to the doctor would definitely do that. I can't…there are so many things that need to be done, and I can't…I can't just go home leave things undone, and then I worry about Tony..." She laughed at herself, but it was a genuine laugh. "He's not overworking me. He'd be content to let me go home like I used to—"

Happy cut her off with belly-deep laugh, which caught Pepper completely off guard. Generally, she understood him pretty well, and when there was a joke, she got it. After all, she was a very astute woman. This case was the exception to the rule. She wasn't entirely sure what he was laughing at, but she didn't like being out of the loop. Her confusion must have showed on her face because after Happy got himself under control, he tried to explain.

"He would never be—how did you put it?—content to let you go home—" He was cut off as Pepper's Blackberry began ringing. Without even pulling the phone out of her bag, she knew that it was Tony. She would have known it was him even if he didn't have a special ring tone.

"Hold that thought," she said, glancing at the number. It was Tony's home number, which he rarely ever used. "Hello?"

"Pehhhperrr…" Tony's voice came through the speakers loud and clear, slurred words and all. Immediately, alarm bells went off in her head. Something was definitely wrong with this situation. He was either drunk or hurt, and truth be told, she wasn't sure which one was worse. Okay, that wasn't entirely true. She could deal with his far-too-frequent drunkenness with more ease than she could mortal wounds. Either way, she was still immensely worried.

"Tony? Are you alright?" she asked, concern creeping into her voice. Hearing her tone, Happy's brow creased; partly from confusion, and partly out of concern. He quickly chucked his empty coffee cup into a nearby trashcan and reached into his pockets for the keys in preparation for their apparent departure. He was only waiting on the right cue from Pepper.

"You…said that I was all you had…" She was caught off guard, for the second time that evening, by his accusatory tone. She wasn't sure why he was accusing her of something, or really what he was accusing her, but her confusion didn't make it hurt any less. He had given her something special when he admitted that she was all he had in this world, and it meant a lot to her. The simple show of trust that he had displayed in telling her that…it didn't happen often, and the fact that he trusted her that much—seemingly implicitly—meant the world to her. And now that he was twisting those words around at her…it was like a shot to the heart.

"Tony, are you okay?"

"No…I don't think sho…"

"What's wrong?"

"You lied to me…" Yep, he was definitely drunk. If he were hurt, he would have told her by now.

"You're drunk," she stated plainly.

"Yes. Johnnie Walker has been keepin' me company…'S not helpin' though. You said I was all you had…"

Then it dawned on her. He must have somehow found out that she was having dinner with Happy. _Shit! _ Now, Pepper Potts was not a swearing woman, but this situation definitely made her do so. She had tried to keep this secret from Tony, not because she was ashamed, because she definitely wasn't, but because she knew that he was not going to be at all happy about it. It was ridiculous, really. She was like a teenager hiding her boyfriend from her parents when she knew that they weren't going to approve. It was stupid, and she shouldn't have hidden it from him but she had, and now she was going to have to deal with the consequences.

She really didn't have to stop and ask herself how he found out. Anyone who knew Tony Stark knew that when he had it in his mind to accomplish something, he was going to do it, consequences be damned. And besides, did it really matter? No, it didn't matter how he found out. What mattered was that he had, and now she was going to have to deal with all the mess that was going to come with it.

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you right now. Not when you're like this," she said. She pushed her chair away from the table, and before she had a chance to gather all her things, Happy was already making a beeline for the car. Pepper grabbed her purse and quickly followed suit. Ideas of all the potentially harmful things in the house were running through Pepper's mind. Flight stabilizers, welding equipment…hell, in his drunken state even the stairs were dangerous.

"Did you mean it?" he asked, his voice childlike, despite [or perhaps because of] his drunkenness.

"I told you, Tony, I'm not going to have this discussion with you over the phone. This is not the time for it."

"You're having dinner with Happy…I think we pro'bly should have had it earlier…"

"I'm on my way. We'll finish this when I get there."

"You're not bringin' _him, _are you…"

"_Happy _is driving me there, and then he's going to go home."

"Good because—" There was the sound of the phone dropping to the floor, followed by a dull thud. Then there was silence.

"Tony? Tony? Tony!" She climbed into the back of the car and nodded to Happy. "The mansion. Hurry." The anxiety in the atmosphere was palpable. She called Tony's name several more times, but there was no answer. Then she hung up and quickly dialed 9-1-1.

"9-1-1 Emergency dispatch. Please state the nature of your emergency," the dispatcher said.

"This is Pepper Potts. I just got a call from Tony Stark, and he was very intoxicated. He passed out while he was on the phone with me. I'm worried about alcohol poisoning or something."

"Okay. I'll send someone over there right away. I'm assuming that you're on your way there?"

"Yes. I should be there soon. What do I do if I beat the ambulance there?"

"You'll want to roll him onto his side in case he starts to throw up. This will keep him from being asphyxiated."

"Okay…I can do that. How long is it going to take the ambulance to get there?"

"They'll be there as soon as they can. I'd like for you to stay on the phone with me until you see that the ambulance is there. Can you do that for me?" the dispatcher asked, his voice soothing.

"Yeah." Happy had really outdone himself this time. The Stark mansion loomed in front of them, all glass and smooth white lines. Usually, Pepper thought of it affectionately. Now it was just a sign of her anxiety. Happy quickly rolled down the window, keyed in his security code and then floored it. The wheels spun on the gravel, making a horrible screeching noise that was almost too much for Pepper's nerves.

They were barely stopped before she threw the door open and ran up the front steps of the house. Her hands were shaking, so it took her a minute longer than usual to get the keys in the front lock and get the door open. When she did, she completely forgot about the poor soul on the phone with her and began calling Tony's name at the top of her lungs. It didn't matter that she knew he was unconscious. A part of her was hoping that if she called long and loud enough, he would answer and tell her that it was all a bad joke.

But he didn't answer. Happy came up quickly behind her and began methodically checking all the rooms, calling Tony's name the entire time. Pepper didn't bother; she knew exactly where he was. She set off at breakneck speed across the house, headed straight for Tony's workshop. It was a miracle that she didn't break her neck in her heels, and in a brief moment of clarity, she kicked them off before heading down the stairs to his workshop.

"Tony! Happy! He's here, in his workshop!" she called, hoping that he could help her.

Tony Stark lay face down in a puddle of amber liquid. The smell of alcohol was strong enough just entering the room; it became overwhelming as Pepper knelt by Tony's side. She had dropped her phone by the door in her hurry to get to her boss. Grabbing him his suit-clad shoulders, she turned him on his back to see if he was breathing. He wasn't. She crawled across the floor to where her phone lay; she snatched it up with shaking hands.

"He's not breathing," she said into the phone, trying to keep her voice calm enough to be understood. Happy entered the room just in time to hear her, and he was at Tony's side in a minute.

"Okay, I want you to do CPR, okay? You're going to take your hands and stack them on top of each other over his heart. For every seventeen compressions that you do, pinch his nose shut and breathe into his mouth twice," the dispatcher explained.

Pepper placed her hands on his chest and began compressions, but Happy quickly pushed her aside and began to do them instead. After the first set of compressions, Pepper set the phone down, pinched Tony's nose shut, and breathed into his mouth. She could taste the alcohol on his lips. Scotch, of course. They watched in hope for a few moments before Happy resumed compressions, and Pepper continued to try to breathe life back into her boss. After their second set, scotch trickled out the sides of his mouth and he began to breathe again.

"He's breathing again," Pepper said. Her tone was an odd combination of relief and panic.

"Okay, turn him on his side—" There was a commotion upstairs as the paramedics came in. They were upstairs; Pepper could hear their thundering footsteps, and the sound of the stretcher wheels on Tony's marble floor. Pepper called out to them, trying to guide them to where they were. Thankfully, Jarvis stepped in and gave them directions to the basement. Happy, taking special care with his friend and boss, moved him out of the puddle of scotch.

"The paramedics are here now," Pepper told the dispatcher before hanging up. She and Happy stepped out of the way as the EMTs took his pulse and did all sorts of other medical things that Pepper didn't understand. She didn't know what exactly they were saying to each other. All she understood was that it wasn't good. It wasn't what she wanted to hear. Something about slowed heart and respiration rates.

"Is he going to be okay?" she asked.

"The dispatcher said that he wasn't breathing. How long was he without oxygen?" one of them asked.

"I don't know. Not more than five minutes, I don't think. We got here pretty fast."

They loaded him onto the stretcher and carried it up the stairs. It was all happening too fast. She was used to business-world fast, but that wasn't a matter of life and death. It was too weird to see Tony on a stretcher. She had only seen it once before, and that had been enough for her.

_Damn you, Tony Stark, for making me relive that…_she thought.

The only other time she had seen him on a stretcher was after the fight with Obadiah at Stark Industries. Right after he had made her kill him. He didn't go to the hospital; he hadn't really needed to, because the suit protected him, but it was standard procedure. He had stayed on that stretcher for all of three minutes while he signed some forms, and then they were going home.

This time, he had to go. He was unconscious, unable to sign forms…unable to laugh or talk to look at her or ask her for coffee or flirt with her or cry or do anything but breathe, and he was having a little trouble with that. This time he actually belonged on that stretcher and it bothered her quite a lot.

"We're taking him to Cedars-Sinai. Would you like to ride—"

"No, we'll follow behind you," Pepper answered, just barely keeping herself together. "Is he going to be okay?"

"We can't know anything for sure until we run some tests. You two managed to clear his lungs, but we don't know how long he was without oxygen. It doesn't take very long to do some serious brain damage," the EMT explained. Then they pulled the doors shut and robe away.

Pepper stood in the driveway, staring after the red lights. Happy started the car and waited patiently for her to get herself together. She didn't. Instead, she just stood there, tears streaming down her cheeks. Realizing that Pepper wasn't going to get in the car, Happy got out and went to her. She didn't look at him for several minutes, and when she finally did, it was just long enough to bury her face in the front of his suit.

"Pepper, we don't know how bad it is. We need to get to the hospital to talk to the doctors," Happy said, rubbing comforting circles on her back.

"This is my fault, Happy. If he has brain damage, it's my fault—"

"No, it's not. Now, lets get to the hospital to see what they have to say. He could be fine. You and I both know how stubborn he is. He wouldn't go without a fight."

Pepper nodded and wiped away her tears before climbing into the back of the car to go see the results of the mess she'd made.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So, there you have it. I hope you liked it. Please let me know.


	3. Patient

**Author's Note:** I apologize for the delay. I have midterms coming up and that means crunch time. Anyway, I hope I've made it worth your wait. If not, let me know.  


* * *

"This is not my fault. This is not my fault," Pepper whispered to herself. She was hoping that if she kept telling herself that, it would finally feel true. So far it wasn't working. The rational part of her knew that it wasn't her fault that Tony had drunk himself into oblivion and passed out in a puddle of scotch, but that didn't make it _feel _like it was any less her fault. The "maybes" and "what ifs" were running through her mind at breakneck speed. Maybe she had handled the situation differently…well, it was obvious that she should have handled everything differently. Instead of being honest with Tony, she had hidden things from him, and now they were all in a big mess.

"Pepper, we're almost there. Are you ok—"

"Please don't ask me that right now," she said, her voice barely audible. She was clinging to the hope that Tony wasn't going to have any sort of lasting affects. If he opened those lovely eyes of his and didn't know who she was, or if he wasn't the same Tony that she had worked side-by-side with all these years, she would never be able to forgive herself. She needed him to wake up and be the Tony that she had always known.

"You can't blame yourself. You didn't make him—"

"I know," she said shortly. "It doesn't make me feel any better."

"Well, brace yourself. Here we are." They pulled up in front of the hospital, and Happy tried to park the car in the most discreet place possible. Of course, it is hard to discreetly hide a Bentley, especially one that said "Stark" on the license plate. But Happy did the best he could, and then they were making a beeline into the hospital. Despite her four inch heels, she beat Happy into the hospital and headed straight for the front desk.

"Tony Stark came in a few minutes ago in an ambulance. I need to know where he is," Pepper said before the receptionist could even greet her.

"Hang on just a second," the receptionist replied politely.

"I need to know _now,_" Pepper snapped, unable to keep her cool for the first time in years. Happy, who only caught the tail end of the exchange, was completely shocked.

"Pepper, give her a minute."

"Um…he's still in the emergency room, and has not been admitted yet," the receptionist said, not altogether able to hide the slight fear in her eyes when she looked at Pepper. Pepper Potts could be a fierce woman when she wanted to be, and she was definitely being fierce right now. It was strange, Happy thought, that he was Tony's bodyguard, but Pepper was the one that protected Tony the most. She kept the worst of the media reports from him so that he could concentrate on work. She had spoken to the Board of Directors on his behalf, when they had all doubted his sanity. She filed the restraining orders against the numerous stalkers he had had at one point. By hiding their dinner date, she had been trying to protect him once again. This time, it just happened to backfire on her.

"Thank you," Happy said before Pepper managed another short, dangerous response. She turned and headed straight towards the emergency room without another word to the poor soul behind the desk. Happy quickly caught up with her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. For a moment, just a split second, she stopped and he thought he saw her start to crumble again. But then it was gone, and this strange, hard Pepper was back, and she was walking towards the emergency room again.

"Pepper, slow down—"

"I can't slow down right now," she said crisply. "If I slow down right now, I don't know that I'm going to be able to get going again." Her voice softened with her revelation. She didn't slow down, but he knew that was her way of trying to hold everything together. It had been this way when Tony disappeared. She had tried to keep moving, to keep working like nothing was wrong, the entire time. She had arranged board meetings and attended them in Tony's place. She had filed papers, answered phones, made copies. She had done work that they usually reserved for interns just to keep her mind off the fact that he was gone. It wasn't until she had learned that he was alive and coming back that she had allowed herself to break down and cry. Now was another of those times.

"Pepper, we haven't even spoken to the doctors yet. Wait until we've talked to them. Then you can get upset."

"Then I can get upset? It's not enough that we found him in a puddle of scotch, not breathing. There's a chance of brain damage. We can't guarantee that he is going to wake up and be the same person he was before. And if he is, we still have to face the fact that he is an _alcoholic!_" The minute the words were out of her mouth, her eyes widened and she clapped her hand over her mouth, in complete shock over what she had just said. It was as if she were trying to catch the words before they could escape from her mouth, but she was too late. They had both known for a long time that Tony had a drinking problem, but neither of them spoke of it. Now, they were being forced to face it.

"We'll take this one thing at a time. Right now—"

"We go to the ER and see what's going on," she finished for him.

"Right."

They continued on, and when they finally arrived in the emergency room, Pepper treated the nurse at the desk with all the same kindness that she treated the previous one. She was totally on edge, and it didn't help to put anyone else around her at ease. Happy, who tried to be a relatively laid-back guy, was on edge, worrying both about Tony and Pepper. She was one of those people who kept everything so carefully controlled: her emotions, her facial expressions, everything. This meant that if she lost it…it was going to be bad. He only hoped that she kept everything under control.

The nurse escorted them back to an exam room where Tony lay, hooked up to a gaggle of machines. Pepper paled and froze stock-still three steps from his bedside, completely taken aback at what she saw. For the first time, she noticed just how dark the circles were under his eyes. She noticed the few grey hairs in his goatee, and the deepening creases in his forehead. He looked so easily broken, which, in a way, he had been. After all, _she _had been the one to break him. Little old Pepper Potts, she thought.

She had never thought that she could do that sort of thing. She had hidden her dinners with Happy from Tony because she thought that he would be jealous, but not this jealous. She had thought that he would get over it. After all, he trusted her to run his life, but she wasn't…she hadn't really thought that she was _that _important. But apparently she was, and now she had hurt him, possibly beyond repair.

"The doctor will be back to speak with you soon," the nurse told them before leaving them alone in the room. As soon as she was gone, Happy pulled a chair up by Tony's bed and sat down. Pepper remained standing, her muscles tense. She didn't move except to breathe for many minutes. After a while, Happy stood and pulled up a chair for her.

"You should sit down—"

"Please stop trying to take car—"

"You've had your knees locked for the past fifteen minutes. If you don't sit down or unlock them, you're going to pass out," he said, motioning to a chair. She sat down in the chair, but didn't relax. She perched on the edge of the chair, every muscle tense. She was clenching her jaw so tightly Happy expected her to break some teeth any minute. He wanted comfort her, but didn't want to touch her for fear of making her shatter. So instead, they sat there in silence, waiting on the doctor to come. He came in a few minutes later.

"Are you—"

"Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan," Pepper filled in. "How is he?"

"We don't know how long he was without oxygen. It only takes a few minutes for oxygen loss to cause brain damage. Until he wakes up, we won't know exactly how his brain has been affected. I'm Doctor Summers, by the way. "

"Do you know have any idea when that could be?" she asked.

"No, that's up to him. We're going to admit him so that we can monitor him until he wakes up," the doctor explained.

"Can you do an EEG?"

"Miss Potts, we're going to do everything we can to determine if there's brain damage, but that is easier done when the patient is awake. Now, we're going to admit him and move him upstairs. You'll be able to see him during visiting hours. In the meantime, we're going to need a medical history…"

"I can do that." Again, Pepper's words were short and clipped. She had stiffened at his words, and turned grey. Happy could no longer keep his hands off her. She was practically screaming in pain; he could see it, but she refused to let it out. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He hadn't thought it possible, but he felt her tense under his hand.

"A nurse will come in and take him upstairs, and you can walk with him." With that, the doctor left the room. As soon as he was gone, Pepper sighed and her shoulders sagged. She reached out and took Tony's hand. It was deceptively warm. The hospital lighting was so bright, it cast shadows and it made him look so pale. He should be cold, Pepper thought. He looks cold. But she was grateful for the warmth of his hand because it let her know he was alive, and that was all she had to cling to at the moment. She didn't let go when the nurses came to take him upstairs. Happy walked behind them the whole time, his face grim.

They sat in silence for a long while, Pepper clutching Tony's hand. Happy was quite sure that when the doctors returned, they were going to find that she had broken his fingers. But she need confirmation that Tony was still alive, and he wasn't about to tell her that she couldn't hold his hand. That contact seemed to be the only thing keeping her sane.

"Pepper, I'm going in search of something to eat. You want anything?" Happy asked.

"No, thank you." Her voice was softer when she answered, but still full of self loathing.

"Do you blame me, Pepper?" She was completely caught off guard by his question. She hadn't actually stopped to think of his role in the whole fiasco.

"Of course not. I'm the one who hid it from him," she answered.

"I didn't go out of my way to tell him."

"Happy, you're just trying to make me feel bett—"

"No. I'm trying to make you see that this is not your fault. You said it earlier. Tony is an alcoh—Tony has a drinking problem. This is not your fault. You can't blame yourself without blaming me, and I know you're not doing that." That was all he said before heading out the room to look for some food. Pepper just sat very still at Tony's side.

She was torn. She wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to talk to him. Talking to him now would be too much like saying good-bye. Like she had already given up hope that he had come out of this normal. But then, on the other hand, she was afraid that if she didn't say them now, maybe she never would. Maybe she was making too big a deal out of it all…no. There were too many things between them that already went unsaid, and she didn't really want anything else to be that way.

"Hi, Tony. It's Pepper. Um…I need you to wake up. I really need you to open those pretty eyes of yours and be the Tony Stark that I know and love. Because, you see, I'm not really ready to say any good-byes or anything. I'm just not. And, I think I owe you an explanation. But you don't get your explanation if you don't wake up. Please, please come back to me. And Happy. And Rhodey. They need you to come back, too. But mostly me. Please, Tony…"

Standing outside the door, Happy watched through a window as Pepper held Tony's hand and just talked to him. He knew that it was inappropriate to smile at a time like this, but he also knew that finally, there was some progress being made. No matter how much she denied it, she and Tony were meant to be. She thrived on holding him together, and he thrived in her presence. He wasn't sure why Tony was jealous of him. He had no reason to be. He and Pepper had dinner, neither of them drank, and then he would escort her home. In the beginning, he had hoped to make more of it, but he knew it wasn't going to work, had accepted that, and moved on.

He could see tear trickling down Pepper's cheeks now. He didn't want to disturb her private moment…their private moment. He wasn't entirely sure if coma patients could hear what was being said to them, but he believed that Tony would hear Pepper. If there was ever an exception to any rule, it would be the two of them. He could see that her tears were beginning to slow, and he deemed it safe to enter the room.

"I found a vending machine down at the other end of the floor. I know you said you didn't want anything, but I figured that water is always a good thing," he said. Pepper smiled gratefully and took a few sips.

"Do you think he can hear us?" she asked.

"I think he can hear _you_. He's so used to you riding his ass, I bet you haunt his dreams." Maybe 'haunt' hadn't really been the best choice of words. She looked slightly more downfallen at his use of it. "It can't hurt to talk to him."

"That's what I was thinking."

They chatted for the rest of the evening, including Tony in their conversation, despite the fact that he couldn't answer back. Of course, neither of them acknowledged that he wasn't answering, because that would shatter their façade and remind them once again that Tony was not in a situation that he needed to be in. They talked into the wee hours of the morning, until Pepper was so tired she was seeing double. She rested her head on Tony's chest. The sound of his heartbeat and breathing, strong and regular, was a comfort to her, and within minutes, she was fast asleep. Happy left her there and lay out on the couch, and he too, fell asleep within minutes.

* * *

The hustle and bustle of nurses woke Pepper. That, and she noticed that the rise and fall of Tony's chest wasn't as regular as it had been when he fell asleep. His heart beat was still strong, and his hand was still warm in hers. She noticed Happy Hogan standing in the corner again, a smile on his face. She sat up and blinked the sleep from her eyes. She tried to brush her hair out of her face, but found that she was unable to do so, because she couldn't get her hand free from Tony's grip. She studied his face for a moment, and saw the faintest trace of a smile.

"Tony? You're awake!" At the sound of her voice, he opened his eyes and looked at her. She saw the recognition in his gaze and smiled. When he finally spoke, it answered all her questions about permanent brain damage or speech impairments or whether coma patients can hear.

"Now, what was this about an explanation?"

* * *

**Author's Note:** So there it is. Hope you enjoyed it. Please review. They keep me going.


	4. Pondering

**Author's Note:** Thank you so so much to everyone for the feedback. It's wonderful to know how everyone is responding. Here is chapter four, which is hopefully well worth the wait. Enjoy!  


* * *

Pepper couldn't stop smiling. It seemed that Fate had shined on her for the first time in a long time. She knew in her heart that there were still several issues that needed to be addressed and resolved, but Tony was awake and apparently no worse for wear, which was in itself a miracle. There were so many things that could have gone wrong. He could have sustained brain damage when he fell and hit his head. He could have died from being without oxygen. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, and yet, Tony Stark had come out of it all with a few broken ribs—thanks to Happy's CPR—and a knot on his head. The dark part of her mind had not allowed her to hope that he would awake and be completely normal. Part of her had believed that her deception had been so cruel that she didn't deserve to have Tony—her normal Tony—back. But it seemed that life was not as cruel to Pepper Potts as she would be to herself.

"Pepper?" Tony asked, interrupting Pepper's thoughts. She jumped in surprise.

"Yes?"

"When are they going to let me out of this place?"

"Um, they're going to run some tests just to make sure that everything is okay, and then they'll think about letting you go."

"Think about it? They haven't had time to think about it yet?" he asked insistently.

"Tony, you're a billionaire _weapons manufacturer _with a wicked legal team. They're not just going to let you walk out of here a few minutes after you wake up. They're just trying to save themselves a law suit."

"Tell them I'm not going to sue them and that I want to go."

"I'll do no such thing. You can wait. We really should make sure that everything is okay," Pepper said smartly. She didn't want to admit to him that she was having the doctors run all these tests. There was still a part of her that was afraid that something would be wrong, and she needed these tests for her peace of mind. Not to mention, Tony's health.

Beneath her smiling exterior, her conscience was tearing at her. She had gotten in trouble by hiding things from him, and here she was doing it again. She tired to justify her actions by telling herself that it was in Tony's best interests, and that was what she was paid for. The problem was, there was a tiny voice in the back of her head reminding her that when she had kept her "dates" with Happy secret from him, that had been in his "best interests" too, and didn't exactly have fantastic results. The truth of what she was doing was threatening to burst forth from her lips at any second, so she quickly rose and began to leave the room.

"Where do you think you're going, Miss Potts?" Tony asked. He was using that tone. _That _tone. The one that he always used when he called her "Miss Potts." It was flirtatious, but there was an underlying intimacy that reflected their years together. It was a tone that would make her do pretty much anything he wanted, which was exactly why she had to get out of the room, right now. He was making her smile wider, and making her want to look at him and spill every thought that she ever had. Yeah, definitely time for an exit.

"I'm going to talk to your doctor, Mr. Stark," she said with a smile. She was using that tone. _That _tone. It was the one that she always used when he called her "Miss Potts." He knew it was a response to his flirtation, but there was an intimacy in her voice. Pepper wasn't the kind of girl—woman—who would fake such feelings. But his recent discovery of her secret date with Happy Hogan had turned that assumption on its head. Yes, she was sitting at his bedside, but then, so was Hogan. Hogan was standing right beside her this whole time…Before he could answer, she was already out the door.

She made it around the corner to the women's bathroom that was on the hall. Minute after minute passed in stony silence as she studied herself in the mirror, not at all satisfied with what she saw. The woman staring back at her was hiding something—several somethings—from someone that was too important to hide them from. He was her employer, yes, but above all, he was her friend. He was her more-than-just-a-boss-or-friend. If he didn't mean anything to her, that tone wouldn't work on her. Yes, she owed him honesty, and if he hated her for it, well…she would just have to live with that. Drawing a deep breath, she exited the bathroom and made her way down the hall to where Tony was still in bed. Happy was standing outside the door.

"I didn't want to be alone with him until you had a chance to explain," Happy said in explanation. Pepper smiled at him and nodded before pushing the door open.

"Couldn't stay away, Miss Potts?" Tony asked, an ironic smile on his face. While she couldn't help but smile a bit at him, she didn't miss the edge in his voice. He was still jealous of what he thought she had with Happy. Of course, she hadn't really given him a whole lot of reason to believe that things were different between them. But she had to clean the air between them. She hadn't been lying when she told him that she had some explaining to do. And she needed to do so now, before things got any further out of control.

"Something like that," she answered, her smile disappearing. She took a seat in the chair beside him and took a deep breath, bracing herself for the conversation that she knew was coming. Tony's braced himself as he saw the seriousness on her face, and while he tried to keep smiling, he was readying himself for news that had the potential to be catastrophic to him.

"Tony…this thing with Happy…it isn't what you think—"

"You mean that you're not hiding your dates with him from me?" Tony asked. Internally, he cringed. He didn't want to be an ass to Pepper, especially when she was about to tell him something important. He could be an ass afterwards.

"Guilty as charged. But, Tony…do you know how hard it is to date in the shadow of Tony Stark?" Of course he didn't. He was Tony Stark, the one night stand kind of guy, and everyone assumed that she was on of those one night stands, despite the fact that she had never slept with him. And all of that made dating extremely hard. When Tony didn't respond, she continued. "Of course you don't, because you are Tony Stark. You don't actually have to try to get a date—if you wanted a date."

"Well you wouldn't have to try very hard—" he started, but she cut him off with a finger to his lips.

"Tony, every man that I have ever dated after you hired me has assumed that I slept you. Having a guy imply that you've slept with your boss isn't really the best way to start a date—or a relationship for that matter. To be entirely honest, it's ridiculous. I shouldn't have to start every date I ever go on with a disclaimer that says, "Don't worry, I haven't slept with Tony Stark," only to have everyone not believe me."

"Well, I could fire you if that would make it easier—"

"It wouldn't help. Besides, I shouldn't have to choose between my job and my personal life. It's like…it doesn't matter what I sat, there's this idea that seems to be in everyone's head that I've slept with you, and that's that."

"Well, we could just make the rumors true," he suggested with a sexy smirk that sent shivers down her spine. Instead of smiling like she wanted to, she gave him a reproachful look.

"Then they wouldn't be rumors. My point is, it's hard to date. It's hard enough when you're a normal person, more or less when you're…"

"The famous Pepper Potts?" he finished for her. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, they both cringed. She hated the hearing those words, and he hated that he had spoken them.

"Exactly. And then there's the fact that work somehow ties into every aspect of my life. You and Happy are closer to me than any other people in this world. You two mean more to me than anyone else in this world—"

"But you chose him."

The silence that fell between them was thick and tense. He could see the pained expression on her face, and hated himself for putting it there, but then, he was right. She had chosen Happy…so why did she look so upset when he mentioned it? After all, it was her decision. He was just stating the obvious.

"I didn't choose him. I had dinner with a _friend. _ I don't really think that counts as 'choosing him.' I wasn't actually aware that this situation required me to choose between you two," Pepper said, frustration creeping into her voice. "Do you know what a relief it is to actually be able to sit down and have dinner with someone who doesn't care about the fact that you're going to talk about work? Just to sit down and talk to someone who doesn't care about whether or not you've slept with your boss?"

"Yeah, actually, I do. You and I do it all the time."

The obviousness of his answer caught her completely by surprise. They often dined together when they were working late, or when he had forgotten to eat and she was making sure that he did so. She had never thought of those occasions as dinner with a friend, but they were. When they sat down to eat, he wasn't her boss…It had been a long time since he actually acted like her boss. These days, more often than not, she was the one bossing him around.

"If it's like you say it is, why did you hide it from me? If it really is just dinner with a friend, why hide it?" he asked.

"Because I knew that you would be jealous. And you were, and because of it, you ended up here. You're in the hospital because of my decision."

"I wouldn't have been jealous if I knew…okay, that's a lie—"

"Tony, Happy and I are just friends. I can go to dinner with him and talk to him and he doesn't care if it's about work, and he's not constantly wondering if I've slept with you, which is _really_ nice. The bottom line is, Happy and I are not a couple, and you've reason to be jealous. So lets not have anymore trips to the hospital over it, okay?" Pepper said.

At some point in time over the course of the conversation, he had taken her hand. Neither one of them was entirely sure when it had happened, but they didn't move to unto it either. Instead, they stayed perfectly still, staring at his larger, calloused fingers interlaced with her small, delicate ones. It was so different from the way she had been clinging to him earlier. Before he had awakened, she was clinging to him in desperation, as if by clutching his hand, she could make him come back to her completely normal. Now, it was comfort…it was him offering her what comfort and apology he could.

Their moment was interrupted by the doctor sticking his head into the room. Pepper tried to pull her hand away, but Tony wouldn't allow it. They were not doing anything to be ashamed of, and he wasn't going to let anyone think that they were. Because being seen holding Pepper Potts' hand was absolutely something that he would never be ashamed of. Instead, he would cherish every moment that she would let him hold her hand.

"Mr. Stark, your labs are back, and we've got to have a little discussion," the doctor said. Pepper's heart started pounding nervously in her chest, just waiting for the doctor to say that there was some kind of complication that was her fault. Tony just nodded.

"Your liver function is not what it should be. It isn't dangerously decreased, which is good, but it is lower than I would like it be—"

"What does that mean?" Tony asked. Pepper felt her chest tighten and her stomach drop. She tightened her grip on his hand, and his heart started pounding. He could see her pale as the doctor talked about his liver function, and he grew nervous. If Pepper was worried, there was a reason to be worried, and Pepper looked like she was about to lose her breakfast.

Tony might not have known what this meant, but Pepper did. Alcohol caused decreased liver function, especially when used in excess. This was not something that Tony was going to want to hear, it wasn't something that he was ready to hear, and Pepper wasn't really sure if it was something she was ready for. It was one thing to intellectually know that it was a problem to be dealt with, but reality was another thing altogether.

"It means that you need to stop drinking, any drugs you've been taking—"

The implication in the doctor's voice made Tony's temper flair. While the doctor was correct in his assumption of Tony's problem, Pepper definitely wished that he would have handled it better than he did. He tightened his free hand into a fist, trying to control his anger. Pepper could already tell that this situation wasn't going to turn out well at all without some type of assistance from herself.

"What are you implying?" Tony demanded.

"I'm saying that you have a problem, Mr. Stark, and that there are plenty of good, private place where you can receive treatment—"

"I don't need treatment, because _I don't have a problem!_" Tony shot back, his voice rising. Pepper put a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Tony, please," Pepper said, trying to calm him.

"Pepper, you can't seriously—"

"Can you give us a moment alone, please?" she asked the doctor. He nodded and rose from his chair before quickly exiting the room.

"Pepper, you can't be taking his side."

"Tony, if I didn't love you so much, I would be content to sit back and watch you drink yourself to death. But I can't do that—"

"Pepper—"

"Tony, please listen to me." To say that she was practically begging would be highly appropriate. Normally, begging wasn't her style. She would much prefer that she just tell him what to do and have him do it. However, this was too important for her to worry about how begging was going to change the dynamic of their relationship. If he kept up his drinking, he wouldn't be alive to have a relationship with.

"Tony, we found you unconscious in a puddle of scotch. How many times has Happy had to bring you home because you couldn't get yourself there? Two weeks ago, I sat up all night with you to make sure that you didn't choke on your own vomit. When you thought I was dating Happy, you went straight to the scotch…Doesn't that tell you something?"

There were tears in her eyes as she spoke. She couldn't resist reaching out for him, running her hand over his face, trying to make him understand. If willpower counted for anything, he would have understood immediately. Instead, he stared at her for a moment, contemplating, realizing that she was right. He had lost too many nights with booze and women—mostly the booze recently—and waking up to find that he didn't remember the night. He had always hoped that the sex had been good, because mostly, he didn't remember it at all. And here was Pepper—the woman of his dreams, literally—begging him to see reason.

"Yes…Pepper, I don't want to go to rehab—"

"Happy and I can help you. But you have to do this for yourself…You can't do it for anyone else but yourself. Not for…Rhodey or Happy or…me. You have to do this for—"

"Miss Potts?"

"Yes?" she answered, snapping to attention. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles lightly. Even the softest touch was enough to send shivers of pleasure down her spine.

"I'm ready to go home," he said, his voice full of trepidation. She smiled a little half smile and rose from her chair to go speak with his doctor. As she walked away, he called after her. "You'll help me through this, right?"

"Of course. Rhodey and Happy will be there, too."

"But _you _will be there, too."

"Yes. I will. I will be there to keep you company through it all." With that said, she pulled the door open and left the room. A split second later, the door opened again and she stepped back in.

"And Tony? Don't ever choose Johnny Walker over me…I'm the jealous type."

* * *

**Author's Note**: So, there it is. Let me know what you think, and I'll try to have the next chapter up soon!


	5. Punishment?

**Author's Note: **Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed. That really lifts my spirits and keeps me going. Also, I'm sorry for the wait. Hopefully this chapter will make up for it. Anyway, whatever you think, please review and let me know.

* * *

"I don't need any of that. I—" Tony's protests were cut off as Pepper shut the door to his hospital room. She stood face to face with his doctor, who began explaining several of L.A.'s chicest rehab centers that had the highest levels of security available to them. She knew that Tony was never going to agree to rehab, but that was the fastest way to get him out of the hospital. Not to mention, it didn't hurt to have some kind of backup, in case this wasn't something they could handle on their own, though if he was going to go into rehab, she would much prefer that it be far, far from the prying eyes of the paparazzi.

"Thank you. I'll keep all this in mind," she answered, taking the papers from him and tucking them into her bag. "Now, can we take him home?"

"I'll get the paperwork. But Miss Potts, this is an issue that you need to take seriously. If he doesn't get help, there could be—"

"Massive liver, kidney, and heart damage, among other things. I know. We will get him help," she answered, trying her best to assure the doctor that they were going to do the best they could with a man as stubborn as Tony Stark. But then, she could be just as stubborn, and right now, Pepper Potts was not considering failure to be an option. Tony Stark _was _going to beat this, and that's really all there was to it. She wasn't going to consider anything else.

As the doctor disappeared around the corner, she stepped back in to Tony's room. He was sitting up in bed, wearing a hospital gown that looked completely and utterly ridiculous on him, especially when he was awake. She knew that he was restless and ready to get home, and truth be told, so was she. At least at home, she wasn't going to have to worry about a member of the paparazzi getting past hospital security and getting some prized snap shots. Of course, that didn't stop them from gathering outside the hospital and waiting for him to come out…which, at some point they would have to do.

"Pepper, I don't want to go to—"

"I know. But, sometimes, Tony, it's easier just to listen and take their papers than it is to protest. The more you protest, the longer they're going to want to keep you here. Now, Dr. Summers has gone to get your paperwork drawn up and we can get you home," she said, sitting in the chair beside his bed. He reached for her and she offered him her hand, which he took gratefully. It was a comfort to him, just that small contact. He had put his life in those tiny hands, and now he was about to do it yet again.

"When we get home, we have some spring cleaning to do," he said, knowing that she would understand what he was talking about. She nodded silently. "All of it, all of it has to go."

"I know. We'll do that first thing. And maybe actually clean the house, because there are some places that I can't reach—"

"You clean my house?"

"Sometimes. Not a thorough cleaning. I just wipe things down with a Clorox wipe every now and again."

"Oh. I have people that do that for me, you know."

"I know, but still. A lot of mess can pile up in a week or so—"

They were interrupted as Doctor Summers entered the room, Tony's paperwork in hand. He quickly signed everything that he needed to sign and the doctor left the room, but not without several pointed looks at Pepper and Tony. Pepper smiled in response; Tony scowled. A few minutes later, a nurse came in carrying a bag containing all the clothes he had been wearing when he was admitted to the hospital. Pepper took them and set them on a chair next to her bag.

"I'm going to need those. I can't leave here in a hospital gown," Tony said, confused. Pepper reached into her bag and pulled out a change of clothes. Tony sighed in relief and quickly headed into the bathroom to change clothes. Pepper sighed, thinking of the long road they had ahead of them.

"I'm ready to pull the car around whenever you're ready for it," Happy said, interrupting her reverie.

"Oh…good…Tony's changing clothes and then we'll be ready."

"There's a mass of photographers outside. You know that, right?"

"I figured as much. Is there a side exit we can use?"

"Not one that I can get the car close to, no. You think you can get him through the crowd?"

"He only has to be in the wheelchair until we get out of the hospital. The minute we cross the threshold, I have a feeling he's going to be out of that chair and ready to go. It shouldn't be any worse than when he tries to go anywhere else. I just have to remind him that the best thing he can do is—"

"Go straight to the car and don't say anything to anyone. Then let the public relations office handle the rest of it. I know," Tony said, emerging from the bathroom.

"You know you have to go through the door in a wheelchair, right?" Pepper asked.

"It's better than staying here any longer."

"I'll go pull the car around," Happy said, and swiftly exited the room. A nurse brought a wheelchair around. Tony sat down and let them wheel him through the hospital. Pepper, carrying her bag and his, walked by his side. Before they turned the corner into the glass-fronted lobby of the hospital, the nurse paused, knowing that as soon as they turned the corner, flashbulbs were going to be going off nonstop.

"Are you ready?" she asked. With a look at Pepper, who smiled encouragingly, he nodded to the nurse.

She hadn't been wrong. The minute they were around the corner, flashbulbs started going off, all wanting to catch a photo of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts emerging from the hospital. There was a mystery surrounding his reason for being in the hospital, and that was making pictures all the more in demand. As the nurse pushed open the front door, Tony stood and stepped out of the chair. Taking Pepper's hand, they pushed through the crowd to where Happy had the car waiting.

"Mr. Stark, why were you in the hospital?" "Is it true that you've picked up a disease from you travels?" "Any comment at all, Tony?" "Is it true that this visit is the result of a domestic dispute with Pepper Potts?"

He had to admit, that one made him laugh.

The ride home wasn't so bad. It was nice to have quiet with Happy and Pepper. It was nice to have the air cleared on that whole situation, and it was even better that Pepper was resting her head on his shoulder. He knew that she was exhausted, and he felt so guilty knowing that she was about to get even more exhausted. Tentatively, he brought his hand up to stroke her hair. When she didn't pull away, he gently kissed the top of her head. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all, he thought. Not with Pepper here.

* * *

It was going to be harder than he thought. This realization really hit him in the gut as he began to clean out his liquor cabinet…well, his many liquor cabinets. The liquor was neatly placed on the bottom shelf, and the tumblers on a top shelf. When he wasn't paying complete attention to what he was doing, he kept finding himself reaching for a tumbler to have a glass of scotch.

"Tony, I can do this," Pepper said, gently pulling the tumbler from his grasp.

"No. I need to do this," he answered, trying to push away the overwhelming want of a drink. Pepper just nodded and handed him a box to put the many bottles in. With each bottle he touched, the need—no, he told himself, want—for a drink seemed to get stronger until it was all he could think about. Pepper, seeing his distress, pulled the bottle out of his grasp, set it in the box, and pulled him away.

"Tony, go work on the hotrod," she said gently.

"Pepper, I need to do this. I _should _be able to do this. This isn't hard! It's just putting bottles in boxes and taking them to a car. I should be able to do this with wanting a drink."

"Will it help if I talk to you? If we talk about something to take your mind off it?"

He nodded silently and grabbed another bottle and set it in his box while Pepper began to talk to him about each of the briefs that she had received from the departments. The Research and Development department was working on several new smart missiles for the military, as well as codes to keep any stolen weapons deactivated. The newly-formed Biotech department was working on combating nano-viruses. The arc reactor was being analyzed to see if it could be a more cost-efficient type of clean energy. As she told him all of this, he lost himself in the sound of her voice, taking comfort in knowing that she was close by. If he thought of Pepper, he could keep alcohol off his mind.

"I'm worried about you making it to your meeting with the Biotech department next week. Would you like me to reschedule that?" she asked, drawing him into the conversation.

"Yeah…that would probably be best," Tony answered. "I'm thinking that maybe you should do that for the next few weeks at least."

"Alright. I can do that. Also, I'll need to write a press statement to release about why you were in the hospital in the first place. I was thinking we could just say that you fell, hit your head, and stayed overnight for observation."

"That sounds good. Keep it as close to the truth as possible…without telling them about the…"

"I know. That's what we're going to tell the Board of Directors as well," Pepper said with a sad smile.

A silence settled between the two of them, but it wasn't necessarily and awkward silence. It was with Pepper, so it could never be meaningless. But he sat for a moment, his hands resting on a bottle, staring at her. She put her hands over his on the bottle and, together, they moved the bottle into the box. He grinned at her, and before he could think better of it, he closed the space between them and kissed her gently. She froze for a moment in shock, before kissing him back.

It was sweet and gentle and _good. _ Tony leaned closer, pulling her as close to him as possible. Her hands tightened around his as warmth spread through their bodies, and he wanted nothing more than to lose himself in her. But no, he wouldn't do that. That's what the booze and the other women were for, and Pepper was better than that. He pulled away gently, leaving them both breathless.

"This box is ready to go outside," Pepper said, unlacing her fingers from his and picking up the box. She turned to carry it out to the waiting car.

"Pepper, that wasn't because…You know I love you." She smiled at that. A genuine smile that went all the way to her eyes.

"I know. I love you, too." And then she finished carrying the rest of the vile substance from the house. Tony looked after her as she went. Yes, this was going to be much harder than he had thought, but he was going to get through it. He was going to sober up, because until he did, he wasn't going to be able to give Pepper all of him, and she deserved better. She wasn't going to serve as a rebound from booze. No, she was the one, and he had every intention of doing this right.

"I think that's all of it," Pepper said as she came back in, her arms empty. Tony ran over all the places in the house where he kept his liquor and realized that there was one more place that needed to be cleaned out. It would be so easy just to let this one go…but no, he was going to do this right.

"No, it's not. There's one more…in my workshop," Tony said, rising and leading her down into his workshop. It looked like just another cabinet that would have held all this tools, but when he opened it, it held a variety of liquor, just like the others had. The only difference was, this one was considerably emptier than the others. Tony studied his hands, not wanting to look Pepper in the eye, completely ashamed of his habit.

"You told me. That's what matters," Pepper said, knowing exactly what he was thinking. She brought a box over and began emptying the cabinet into it.

"What are we going to do with all this?" he asked, mentally running over the sheer amount of money all this had cost him.

"The unopened bottles can make good Christmas presents," Pepper said. She was always thinking practically. "I don't know what I'll do with the rest of it, but I'll figure something out. Don't worry."

"I am worried. Right now, I want a drink so bad I can't stand it. And it'll get worse."

"I know. But Happy and I are going to be here with you. Rhodey will come by at some point, too. We're supporting you. You can do this. When you set your mind to something, you can do it, as evidenced by the shiny suit over there in the corner," she said.

"How am I supposed to not think about it?" he asked.

"Well…I could distract you, I suppose," Pepper answered, obviously not thinking about what she was saying. She realized what she had said a split second after the words were out of her mouth. "I mean…I could give you something to do that would distract you." To save herself any further blunders, she quickly left the room.

Despite the heaviness of the atmosphere, Tony couldn't help but smile at Pepper. Yes, she would distract him. Yes, she would.

* * *

Two days later, Tony was in a considerably less optimistic mood. In fact, he was cranky as hell, made worse by the fact that he knew he was going into withdrawal. He had Jarvis tell him all of the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, but knowing what to expect wasn't making the situation any easier. It mostly just made him more annoyed because he couldn't stop what was happening, and he wished that he could. Pepper could hear him cursing in frustration downstairs in his workshop.

"Jarvis, how is Tony?" Pepper asked.

"He seems to be experiencing the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. Irritability is not an uncommon symptom. Also, he has not slept since you arrived home."

"How many hours?"

"Forty-seven hours and thirty-six minutes. Trouble sleeping is also a common symptom."

"I know. Please keep me up to date on his condition," she requested. She was going through all the paper work she had been getting from the office. So far, she had looked over all the numbers from the accounting department, which were really nice numbers to have. They were making a great profit, and the stock was still doing very well. That was a huge relief, though it didn't alleviate Pepper's fear that if word got out about Tony's condition, the stocks were going to plummet.

But she couldn't worry about that right now, or it would drive her insane. She had practically been running the company since the day before when Tony had started to get very irritable. Not to mention, he had a fever, which had thankfully passed, but she was still worrying nonetheless. Rhodey had stopped by earlier, only to be chased out of the workshop ten minutes later. Tony wasn't really handling the withdrawal well, though Pepper could hardly blame him. It still didn't stop her from worrying. She had been trying to get him to eat something since this morning, but to no avail. At least he wasn't throwing up…yet.

Downstairs, Tony wasn't having a lot of luck trying to distract himself. He knew that Pepper was doing work upstairs—work that was going to keep his company running—and he hated to pull her away from that because of his problem. Especially a problem that was his fault. He had been hoping that he wouldn't get the shakes, but it seemed that fate was not smiling down on him today. It had started small, but escalated the longer he tried to work on the hot rod until finally he couldn't do anything because his hands were shaking too badly.

With a cry of frustration, he hurled the car part in his shaking hands across the room. Luckily, it hit a plaster wall, not one of windows, with a loud thump. There was a large dent in the wall, and the plaster began to crumble and fall to the floor. Realizing what he had done, Tony clenched his fists, desperately trying to make the shaking stop, but was unable to do so. The sheer hopelessness of it all made him sick. Literally.

He barely managed to make it to one of the wastebaskets in the room before loosing the contents of his stomach—which wasn't much. He didn't move for a long while afterwards, feeling ridiculously ill and weak as a child. He could hear the phone ringing upstairs, and Pepper's worried voice answering it. The phone had been ringing off and on all day long, mostly reporters wanting further information on his condition.

"Hello, Stark residence," she answered.

"Miss Potts, it's General Fury."

"Um…Hello, General. How are you?" she asked, hoping that he wasn't about to ask what she thought he was going to ask.

"I need to talk to Tony." He didn't bother to elaborate because they both knew exactly what he wanted. Problem was, Tony definitely wasn't feeling up to task, or up to handling this phone call.

"I'm sorry, he's not available," she answered, trying to keep her calm.

"What do you mean, 'he's not available?'" Fury demanded. "I know he's home. It's been all over the news that he hasn't left his home since he was released from the hospital."

"Yes. As you know, he was recently released from the hospital. Thank you so much for the well-wishes. Tony appreciates the card," she said pleasantly, knowing full well that Fury and SHIELD hadn't sent any card, and that they were only worried about Tony's well-being as long as he could do missions for them.

"Card?"

"Never mind." _So much of my good humor is lost on people, _she thought. "Tony is out of commission right now, General."

"What do you mean, out of commission?" he demanded, his voice growing angry. Pepper started down the stairs to check on Tony.

"I mean that he isn't going to be able to take any missions for the next few weeks," she said firmly. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Tony bent over a trashcan, heaving his guts up. She almost dropped the phone and ran to him, but she refrained from doing so. Instead, she quickly crossed the room and kneeled at his side. She began to run her fingers through his hair comfortingly, but she shrugged her off.

"Why?"

"That's none of your damn business." Her voice was getting icier with each question.

"I have a right to know why one of my soldiers is out of commission."

"For your information, he is not one of your 'soldiers.' He isn't some expendable weapon that you can pull out and use whenever you want. He is a living, breathing, _feeling _human being, and if I say he's out of commission, you need to accept that he is out of commission and find someone else." With that, she hung up. Her voice softened when she looked at Tony, still bent over the trashcan. "Are you alright?"

He sat up, still feeling weak and shaky. He had never been a practicing Catholic, but he started to wonder if this was what punishment...if this was his penance for the wrongs he had done. His eyes were full of frustration and shame, and it cut Pepper to the core. Not daring himself to speak without losing his composure entirely, he just shook his head. After wiping his sweaty forehead on his sleeve, he stood slowly and crossed the room to where the car part was lying. Pepper, being the smart woman that she was, put two and two together quite quickly. He picked up the part and walked back to where he had been working. To say that he sat down in the chair would be a gross understatement. Collapsed is probably a more proper term. Then he just sat there, unmoving, except for the tremor in his hands.

Pepper stood slowly, and walked to his side. She didn't know anything about how car parts were supposed to fit together. Changing flat tires was about the extent of her car knowledge, but she was pretty sure that some of the cables and wires were twisted in ways that they shouldn't be twisted. Tony's handwritten notes on the plans near his workstation were practically illegible. He could no longer distract himself with the classic car. Instead, now it was drawing further attention to his problem.

"I can't even work on the hot rod anymore, Pepper. I can't work on anything," he said dejectedly. He turned to face her, but couldn't meet her gaze. Instead he stared down at his uncooperative hands. "How can I do anything when I'm like this? What do you do with hands like these?"

With no hesitation, Pepper reached out and took his unsteady hands in her steady ones. Shocked by the contact, he studied her face with tear-filled eyes. Worry was written in every line of her face. Tears were in her eyes, but there was no hesitation at all in her voice when she spoke.

"You give them to me," she said. She gently pulled him away from his workstation and across the house to his bedroom. He followed her without questioning, completely surrendering everything to her. Normally, he would have teased her about undressing him, but this time, he stood mutely and let her handle everything. His shirt hit the floor, and her shoes quickly followed. Still clad in her pantsuit, she pulled him onto the bed and quickly lay down next to him.

"Pepper, I can't control my own body—"

"Shh, you will. This will pass," she answered soothingly. Her arms were wrapped around him, his hands in hers. As if trying to absorb her calm, he moved closer to her. She began to run a hand through his hair, trying to calm him, as she continued to whisper in his ear.

"It'll pass, I promise. It'll pass," she whispered. Lost in the sound of her voice, Tony Stark slept for the first time in over forty-eight hours.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed. Please, please review. Reviews are like crack for me...except less illegal and more healthy.


	6. Giving Them Something to Talk About

**Author's Note:** Huge thank yous to everyone who read/reviewed/favorited/alerted. It really does brighten my day to know that people are enjoying what I'm writing. Thanks. Also, I apologize for the wait, and hope that this was worth it.  


* * *

When Tony woke up in the morning, it felt like his skull was about to implode. All the noise in the house seemed to come into his head and then bounce around inside his skull. Between the pressure inside his head and his shaking, which had not faded, he was expecting his brains to start leaking out his ears at any minute. It didn't help that the aching in his head seemed to spread downward and encompass the rest of his body. No, this was not the picture perfect beginning to the day that he had expected.

For one, Pepper wasn't next to him. Falling asleep in her arms had finally brought him the peace he needed to get some sleep, but it didn't seem to be carrying over into the waking world. He could hear the sounds of water running in the bathroom, and Pepper moving around. As much as he wanted to get up and join her, nausea slapped him in the face as he tried to sit up. Luckily, Pepper had put a trashcan beside the bed, and he vomited into it. As soon as she heard him, she rushed out of the bathroom, not caring about the towel on her head.

"Tony, are you alri—oh." She quickly came to his side and stroked his back as he continued retching into the wastebasket. When he was finally finished, she took the trashcan into the kitchen and began to wash it out. When she returned, she held a glass of water and two Tylenol. "I don't know if this will really help, but…here," she said, offering him the pills and water. He was going to nod in response, but he was overtaken by nausea once again. Thankfully, this time he didn't throw up, but he wasn't sure how much the Tylenol could help him.

"Thanks," he whispered, throwing his head back and swallowing the Tylenol. His body was calling to him, telling him that there were things that needed tending to. She sat down next to him, waiting for him to finish his glass of water. "I need to get into the bathroom."

"Yeah, you do. You're pretty rank. You should shower," she said. Noticing his continued shaking, she amended, "Maybe a bath would be better."

"Right, yeah…a bath." He grabbed her arm and pulled himself up off the bed. She followed him into the bathroom, just to make sure he didn't trip and fall and hurt himself. After she got the bathwater running and set out some towels, she turned to leave, hoping to finish dressing and give Tony some privacy.

She made her way across the house to the room where she had been sleeping. She kept a few changes of clothes on hand at the estate, mostly because she was never sure when she was going to be staying late. Not to mention, there had been more interesting spills in his workshop that she had to help clean up. As she was pulling on a pair of yoga pants, Jarvis came over the intercom.

"Miss Potts, Tony has requested your help in his bathroom."

"Right. I'm coming." She towel dried her hair the best she could and quickly pulled on a t-shirt. When she arrived back in Tony's bathroom, he was sitting the bathtub, the crystal clear water leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. If he hadn't looked so vulnerable, she would have covered her eyes and fled from the bathroom. But he was sitting there, looking at her with tears of frustration in his eyes.

"I—I need you t—to talk to me, please. Will you do that?"

"Of course. What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything. Everything. Anything that's not me sitting in a bathtub trying not to think about how much I want a drink right now."

"I was thinking that since it is such a nice day outside—"

"Day? What time is it?" Tony asked. "Jarvis, what time is it?"

"It is two thirty-three in the afternoon, sir."

"I slept that long? You slept that long?" He looked at Pepper in complete shock. Pepper never slept past eight, even on the weekends. She had been a little bit shocked herself when she awoke earlier at noon.

"Yeah, I slept that long. I got up at noon and got some paperwork done, but then I saw what a pretty day it was outside, and I thought that maybe we could head down to the beach—"

"I have a pool in the back—"

"It's not the same, Tony. Besides, I think it would do you some good to get out and away from the house. And nothing is more relaxing than a walk on the beach. How long has it been since you took a walk on the beach?" she asked.

He continued to bathe, even as he answered her question. "It's been…a long while. Since before Afghanistan. I can't remember how long before."

"That's what I thought. You bought this lot for the view. You designed the house so that you could have the perfect view, and you never take advantage of it. That's the plan for the day," she said, her voice optimistic.

"And what about the dozens of photographers waiting out there? The ones that are going to photograph us together and turn it into a ridiculous story about our secret marriage?"

"We'll deal with them. It'll give them something to talk about."

"Like the song?"

"Yeah," she said, smiling. "Like the song."

"Remind me why I'm taking a shower when I'm just going to go out on the beach and get sweaty again?" he asked teasingly. It seemed that her beach idea had succeeded in distracting him.

"Because you hadn't showered since the day you came home, and you smelled disgusting. Of course, you probably smelled bad enough to keep the paparazzi away."

"See, just another reason why I shouldn't have to shower."

She arched a brow skeptically. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness, Mr. Stark."

"Is it now, Miss Potts? Well, then I'd say that I'm probably a lost cause." There was just the slightest edge in his voice, and if he had been talking to anyone but Pepper, they wouldn't have noticed it. But Pepper, being who she was, immediately noticed that he sounded just the tiniest bit hopeless. He was trying to cover it with humor, but wasn't quite succeeding. Maybe her plan wasn't working so well after all.

She reached out and touched his cheek, forcing him to look her in the eye. "No one is a lost cause, and certainly not you. You have committed yourself to changing, to kicking this addiction, and you can do it. You _will _do it. Pepper Potts doesn't waste her time on lost causes," she said, her voice quivering with determination.

"Then I don't, either," he said. He turned into her touch, and laid the lightest of kisses on her palm. "Now let's hit the beach."

"Right. I'll see you by the back door in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes? It takes you that long to put on a bathing suit?"

"Not all of us have sun-friendly complexions, Tony. I have to put on that new fangled stuff called sunscreen."

"Sunscreen? I don't know how to put that on. Could you do it for me?" he asked, his voice full of mock innocence. Then he remembered his resolution not to be with Pepper until he was completely sober. Then where did last night's situation put them? Damnit, it was all very complicated. Anyway, the line did make Pepper blush rather charmingly, so he couldn't regret it too much.

"Not today. Maybe another day, though, if you're a good boy," she said with a sly smile. "But for now, we're beach bound. Back door, fifteen minutes."

Tony—clad in only his swim trunks—was waiting by the door five minutes later, stuffing his face full of a chicken sandwich that he had found in the refrigerator. Pepper, knowing that the he was going to need something to eat once he woke up, had prepared a few sandwiches when she first woke up and put them away in the fridge, also knowing that he would find them later. Pepper was promptly at the door fourteen minutes after their parting, clad in shorts and a t-shirt over her bathing suit—a tasteful one piece. She also wore a hat and sunglasses.

"Ready?" she asked, looking out the back windows, knowing that the paparazzi were waiting with telephoto lenses to take pictures.

"Yeah," he answered with a nod. He extended a trembling hand to her, which she took, and they stepped outside into the sun. They both knew damn well that pictures were going to appear on the front of the tabloids declaring them an item, and at this point they didn't care. If walking on the beach helped Tony get sober, and they were photographed during said walk…well, it was a price that they were willing to pay. At this point, Pepper wasn't sure if there was any price that she wouldn't pay to help Tony. She knew that she loved him, and she wasn't the kind of person that abandoned the people she loved. It wasn't a lie when she had told him that he was all she had.

Pepper was wearing more clothes than he believed any person—especially one as good looking as she was—had a right to wear on the beach, but it didn't seem to stop her from enjoying herself. She came alive like he had never seen before. Her smile was a constant fixture on her face, and shone brighter than the sun. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and despite his trembling—which was lesser than it was yesterday—he couldn't keep a smile off of his face. A drink was the farthest thing from his mind. After all, he had never seen Pepper like this, and he sure as hell didn't want to cloud those memories by drinking to excess.

Hand in hand, they walked down the beach, enjoying the sun, surf and sand, but mostly the company. The last time Tony had felt sand between his toes had been when he was walking through the desert in Afghanistan. This was a totally different experience. For one, the sand was wet and slightly cool. Also, Pepper was beside him, enjoying herself as much as he was. Childlike was never a word that he would use to describe Pepper, but the joy she took in the beach was so pure and wonderful…the only other time that he could remember such a pure joy was in his own memories of childhood.

"I never realized that you enjoyed the beach so much," he commented. She was silent for a long moment, trying to think of a way to explain it to him.

"When I come out here and look out over the ocean…it makes me feel so small, but like I'm a tiny part of something bigger. When I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, all I have to do is look out over the sea and it's like the world's way of cutting me down to size. If I'm so small, my problems can't be that huge, can they? There's a certain relief in that, and it's wonderful."

Tony felt a surge of guilt, knowing that most of those weighty problems of hers were a result of him. He spent too much time in the suit, tried to check behind every transaction his company made, and when he couldn't manage it all, he pushed the extra on to Pepper when she already had too much on her plate. "I'm the reason you feel the weight of the world," he said quietly.

She took his hand tighter. "No. The reason I feel the weight of the world is because I let myself feel it. You know that you can't make me do anything I don't want to do. I take on the responsibilities because I want to, not because you force me to."

"Promise?"

"Yeah. Now, I want to collect some shells so I can fill one of those glass lamps with them. They make great decorations," she said, trying to pull him away from guilt. When he started feeling guilty, he tried to drown it with alcohol, and that wasn't a road she wanted him to travel down. She was determined to make this as easy for him as possible, because God knows it is hard enough already.

As they made their way down the beach, Tony began to fill his pockets shells until no more would fit. Pepper pulled off her t-shirt, tied off the shirt tails and made a makeshift bag for their shell collecting. Most of the shells were bleached white from the sun, but there were a few that were still bright and colorful. They reminded her a bit of Tony: spots of color in a world that would be otherwise bland and boring. Because while being personal assistant to Tony Stark—as well as whatever else she was, something too complicated to name—require infinite amounts of patience, it was also never boring.

"Pepper, I think we have enough shells for eight lamps," Tony called to her several hours later. The sun had fallen below the horizon half an hour or so before. They had made their way back to the house, Tony carting the shells—which were not light—the whole way. She couldn't resist laughing at him; he looked exhausted and sunburned and, for once, he was waiting on her. The irony was not lost on either of them.

"Okay. I'm just going to get my toes wet, and then I'll be right in," she said. She stood for a long moment at the edge of the water, her eyes closed. Right now the sea was calm, and she basked in the tranquility of the moment. It had taken all her strength and serenity not to break down and cry when she had seen Tony shaking and vomiting the night before. He was the strongest person she knew, and she had never wanted to see him like that, ever. It was one thing to patch him up after a mission, but last night he had been so hopeless. Hopeless was not a good look for Tony Stark, and it wasn't good for Pepper's sanity. But they would make it. He was determined and she was determined, and they were going to make it through this. With a deep breath, she turned and walked back towards the house, her determination to help Tony renewed.

"Nick Fury called twelve times while we were gone," Tony said the minute she set foot in the house. She swore under her breath. He was sitting on a sofa, looking at photos of what appeared to be charred human remains, his expression completely devoid of any emotion.

"He called last night about sending you on a mission. I told him that you were indisposed, and that he needed to find someone else," she said calmly, not mentioning that Fury had been, well, furious.

"Well, apparently he didn't find someone else. He just sent us the reports on the incident. Eighteen people are dead," Tony said bleakly.

"What? What happened?"

"There was a weapons malfunction at a testing facility. There was an explosion and several scientists were trapped. He needed me because the suit could withstand the extreme heat…I didn't go, and they all died…"

"Tony, you know you couldn't have gone. You could hardly stand upright—"

"But they're still dead. I could have tried—"

"And gotten yourself killed in the process. That doesn't help anyone."

"I should have been able to help them," he whispered.

"You have to help yourself before you can help other people. Besides, if the heat was so extreme that firefighters couldn't get it, I don't think you could have brought them out."

"They're dead, Pepper. The reports said they burned to death—"

"It's too early to know definitively. They'll have to do autopsies. I'm betting they died of smoke inhalation."

"I want a drink," he declared, defeated. "God, Pepper, I want a drink. I want to forget that last night eighteen people died, and I might have been able to save them. I _need _a drink."

"No you don't. You're stronger than that. You've worked too hard to give in now. There are always going to be situations that you want to forget. You just have to find another way to cope," she said, taking his face into her hands, forcing him to look at her. He refused to meet her eyes. Then she had an idea. She took him by the hand and led him back outside, despite his protests.

She sat down on the beach and pulled him down next to her. It was dark, so she couldn't see his expression, but she could still hear his questions and protests. With a hard shove, she pushed him flat on his back to the ground, then kept him that way by resting her head on his chest. His breathing was ragged, his heart racing.

"What are you doing, Pepper?"

"When you have the weight of the world on your shoulders," she whispered. "Sometimes you just need to feel peaceful. And what's more peaceful than this?"

After several minutes, his breath slowed and evened out, along with his heartbeat. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer, burying his face in her hair. It was dark, but she didn't need to see his expression to know that he was feeling it, too. That peaceful feeling that she always found with the sea and the stars. She could feel the tension easing from his body as he took it all in. He was giving up his burden to the world that he was just a tiny piece of.

"I don't think it would be the same if you weren't here with me," he whispered.

"Well, when you need me, I'll be here."

"Promise?" he asked for the second time that day.

"Always."

* * *

**Author's Note: **So, there you have it. Please review, because, well...y'all are awesome like that.


	7. No Interruptions

**Author's Note: **I'm so so so sorry for the wait on this. Work has caught up with me, when I didn't expect it to. Anyway, a huge thank you to everyone that read/reviewed/favorited/alerted/ etc. Things like that brighten my day.  


* * *

Neither Tony nor Pepper wanted to break the stillness and beauty of the moment, but the longer they lay under the stars, the colder it got. The breeze from off the water was cold and cutting through their thin clothes, leading them to nestle closer to each other. The heat from her body was a comfort to him, and he reveled in the feel of her slim body against him. Her head was resting on his shoulder, and she could feel him shaking beneath her cheek.

He wished he could stop shivering, but he couldn't. He wasn't sure if it was the cold or the withdrawal symptoms. He wished that he could tell himself that it was just the chill of the wind, but he couldn't. For those few, shining hours this afternoon, he hadn't been thinking of alcohol or the shakes or what his liver function was. Instead, he had been enjoying an afternoon on the beach with his…girlfriend? But somehow, despite her company, despite her attempts to shelter him, he still found out about Fury's call, and in the end, he still wound up wanting a drink.

"Pepper?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you sleep with me again tonight?" he asked, his voice childlike and innocent. Pepper knew that he wasn't (for the first time since she had known him) asking for sex. He just wanted the comfort of her nearness while he slept, and she was more than willing to give it to him. She knew that he didn't like showing weakness, and the very admission that he needed her nearby was an act of trust that warmed her heart.

"Of course. Are you ready for bed?"

"God, yes," he sighed. "I'm so tired. I just want some sleep or…if my hands would just stop shaking for two seconds, I could get some work done in the garage…"

"Tony—"

"I just need something to do to keep my mind off things. I keep thinking about the way that I reacted when I found out about you and Happy…I'm sorry for how I acted…It was immature—"

"Tony, there's time for all that later, okay? Right now, we're going to bed so you can get some sleep."

"I need a shower. I have sand all over me," he said, pointing out the obvious. After all, they were laying on a beach.

"Okay. Take a shower and go to bed. I have a few things I need to take care of before I come to bed," she answered, thinking of all the paperwork that she needed to sift through. After Tony fell asleep, she could do a lot of it sitting up in bed. It was mostly just crunching some numbers and replying to some e-mails. But what she was really waiting for was a chance to make a phone call to a certain someone…

"What kind of things?" he asked, just to stall a little longer. While he was tired and definitely wanted to go to bed, he also didn't want to let go of the woman in his arms.

"Just some paperwork. Looking over some figures, crunching some numbers. That sort of thing."

"You know, I can help with that. I'm not a complete invalid."

"I know. I just thought that everything would be easier for you if you didn't have to worry about running a company while you're trying to…beat an addiction."

"It has made it easier for me. And I'm pretty sure that it's made life harder for you," he said. "Before last night, how much sleep had you gotten?"

Trying to dodge the question, she stated matter-of-factly, "More than you had. You hadn't slept in forty-eight hours."

Unfortunately, her attempt at dodging the question didn't work. Tony had known her far too long not to notice when she was trying to dodge a question. Tricks like that might work on nosey reporters or the Board of Directors, but they weren't going to work on the man who had known her for ten years, and had been her friend for most of that time. He saw right through what she was trying to do, and called her out.

"Don't dodge, Pepper. How much sleep had you gotten?"

"Six hours, give or take," she replied, after a long silence. Her reluctance was obvious to him, mostly because she knew that it was going to be something else that he felt guilty about.

"Six hours of sleep in two days? Jesus, Pepper. You'll be dead of a stress-related heart attack by forty at this rate."

"Tony, I'll be fine. I knew what I was getting myself into when I took this job. If I recall correctly, and I do, the job description is 'anything and everything that Mr. Stark requires.' And right now, you need to be left in peace, so you can concentrate on getting well."

"I don't want to concentrate on getting well. I want to push any thoughts of drinking as far from my mind as possible. Let me help you. I can crunch numbers with the best of 'em—"

"I'm aware, though, I think it was you that made that multi-million dollar error in the books that one time—"

"You know, I don't think I've ever been as grateful for an error as I was for that one," he said with a slight smile, thinking of the day he met Pepper Potts.

She had calmly walked into his office brandishing dozens of spreadsheets and pages of calculations that he had personally done. Then, in red pen, she had marked all the places that he had made mistakes, re-worked the calculations in green ink, and saved him somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-million dollars. She had tried to tell her superiors of the mistake, but they ignored her because they were Tony Stark's calculations, after all, and he was genius. So, Pepper had gone over their heads and straight to the source. Three weeks later, after much cajoling, she had agreed to be his personal assistant.

He was pulled from his reverie when he felt her shivering with cold against him. As gently as he could, he untangled himself from her grasp and stood, ready to retreat back inside. He offered her a slightly trembling hand to pull her from the ground. She accepted gratefully, and wrapped an arm around his waist as they walked towards the house. Then it struck Tony that she was leaning on him for support just as much as he was leaning on her.

"Let's go get cleaned up and go to bed," he whispered with a kiss to the top of her head. She was silent, but he could feel her nodding against his shoulder. They slowly made their way back into the house and stood for a long moment in the living room before pulling away, reluctant to ruin the moment.

"I have to get cleaned up and I'll see you in bed," she said, pulling away. Without looking over her shoulder, she walked towards her wing of the house. As soon as she was out of Tony's sight, she waited until she heard him walk into his room. "Jarvis, is Tony in the shower?"

"Yes, Miss Potts, he is."

"Thank you," she whispered. She ran back into the living room and picked up the photos that Fury had sent to them earlier in the day. They were disgusting pictures of charred human remains. Yes, she could see why it would make Tony into wanting a drink. Just looking at them made her want a drink.

Fury had known what he was doing when he sent the photos. Sure, he didn't know exactly what was going on with Tony Stark, but he knew that he didn't have his best soldier ready for deployment. This was his revenge. Fury had known that Tony was a bleeding heart for the victims of tragedies, and to see the results—especially gruesome ones like this—of his inaction would hurt him immensely. He had intentionally set out to hurt Tony to discourage them from rejecting another mission. Cold-hearted bastard.

She grabbed her Blackberry and stalked away to her bedroom. Glancing at the time, she smiled. It was ten thirty, Pacific time. That meant that it was one thirty on the East coast, home to Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Perfect. His number was programmed into her phone, and she found it quickly. It rang once before going to voicemail. She hung up and dialed again, and, just as before, it went to voicemail. This happened two more times before someone finally answered.

"Hello?" a tired but gruff voice answered.

"General Fury? Hi, it's Pepper Potts," Pepper said, her voice businesslike but still cheerful.

"Potts? Do you know what time it is?"

"Yes, actually. I believe that it is ten thirty-seven in the evening, my time. But you're a good three hours ahead of me."

"You couldn't have called during office hours?" he asked. From his tone, she could tell that he was now wide awake and furious, which was just fine with her.

"You didn't call during office hours yesterday, I just thought I'd return the favor." There was a hint of steel in her voice now, but he was completely oblivious to the fact that he was treading on thin ice.

"People needing help don't have office hours, Miss Potts. You of all people should know that."

"And you should know that there are other people you can contact other than Tony. But I'm thinking that there are a lot of things that you _should _ know."

"Miss Potts—"

"No, don't you interrupt me. You sent those photos to us this afternoon knowing full well that they were going to upset Tony. You did it to punish him for not being at your beck and call like you wanted him to be. Don't _ever _do it again. Not going on that mission was not Tony's decision, it was mine, so don't punish him for my decisions."

"I wasn't aware that you were making those decisions for him—"

"I told you not to interrupt. Tony Stark is a good man, but he is also his own man. Sometimes you forget that. You think that he is an iron soldier for you to order around get results out of, but Tony is a living, breathing human being. He has strengths and weaknesses, and life is hard enough without you trying to exploit those weaknesses. Do something like this again, Fury, and I will spill everything about S.H.I.E.L.D to the press. Every last detail, down to the names of your secretaries," she said, her voice low and venomous.

"That is a matter of national security—"

"I don't give a damn. You have to learn that you can't use people whenever it suits you. When I tell you that Tony is indisposed, it means leave us the hell alone. Pull another stunt like you did this afternoon, and I swear by the Virgin Mary, you'll regret it."

"I think that you would be the one regretting it, Miss Potts." Fury's rage was evident in the sheer volume of his voice. Pepper was holding the phone a good six inches from her ear, and he was still too loud.

"No, I really don't think I would. Now, you sleep on that, General Fury, and have a nice night." With that, she hung up. She made a beeline for the shower, hoping to scrub the remnants of her conversation with Fury from her memory and the beach grime from her skin.

She made the shower quick, but apparently not quick enough. When she stepped out of the bathroom, Tony was waiting in her bedroom, sitting on the end of the bed, studying the photos that Fury had sent them earlier in the day. Seeing her Blackberry was in his other hand, she knew immediately that he knew what was going on. When he saw her standing in the doorway, he rose quickly, her phone and the photos still in his hand.

"I'll see you in a few minutes?" he asked.

"Yeah, just let me get dressed." He left the room, giving her privacy—though they had been close enough the past day or so. She had been hoping to keep her conversation with Fury secret from Tony, but she also should have known better than to try and keep secrets from him. After all, that was what had started this fiasco. She pulled on her pajamas and a pair of socks and headed into his bedroom, taking her laptop and briefcase with her.

Tony was already in the bed, waiting for her. Dropping her work stuff on what had apparently been designated her side of the bed, she climbed in beside him. Instead of pulling her into his arms like he was dying to do, he took her hand and asked her seriously, "Were you going to tell me about Fury's call?"

"I don't know. I hadn't really thought that far in advance. At first I didn't think it was going to be a big deal. I thought that he would just send someone else. I honestly didn't think he was going just let eighteen people die," she answered honestly, studying her hands.

"And when you called him just now?"

"I wasn't going to tell you. I didn't think it was really that important."

"You didn't think that you threatening the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. was important? You threatened to expose his entire agency. He's killed people for less," Tony said, giving in to his urge to pull her against him.

"He's not going to kill me. You'd stop working for him if he did. I'm assuming that you heard from Jarvis?" she asked, completely unphased that he knew.

"Yeah. And you looked ready to kill earlier. I thought you might do something. You've never been a fan of Fury's. "

"He was punishing you for something that wasn't your fault. He knew that those pictures were going to hurt you, and he sent them with that intent. He needs to understand that he can't do that. I won't tolerate it. You're not a toy that he can just take out and play with whenever he wants. There are other people in this world that you're your time."

"People like you?" he asked, studying her face carefully.

"Yeah, me. I want your time."

"You've always had plenty of my time. Last time I checked, you were the only person I had seen in over thirty-six hours."

"It's different…He just…He would call you up with information about your weapons or some assignment and you would just go, because you want to make up for past mistakes. I had to work to get you to ever listen to me—"

"Are you jealous of Nick Fury?" Tony asked, not believing what he was hearing. Pepper flushed red and smiled sheepishly.

"Not of him, necessarily, but…I feel like he gets so much of your time now—"

"Pepper, I'm not lying in bed with Nick Fury."

"Thank God. That'll be the day that Hell freezes over."

"No. Not even when Hell freezes over. You're my girl, and nothing's going to change that."

She smiled again at him. It was a pure, beautiful smile that wrinkled the corners of her eyes. It had been a long time since he had seen her smile like that. For the first time since the entire ordeal began, she didn't look tired or worried. She looked perfect, and he couldn't resist a kiss.

It started as a gentle, chaste kiss, but after a moment or two, it became more heated. He wrapped his arms around her, crushing her against his chest. Her fingers tangled in his hair, unwilling to let him go. Even after they pulled away, they lingered in their embrace, just enjoying the feel of being near each other.

Ironically, it was Tony that pulled away first. "Didn't you say that you had some numbers to crunch?"

"Yeah, right here," Pepper replied, pulling away just long enough to pull up her laptop. Tony draped a still slightly shaking arm over her and began studying the figures on the screen.

"You know, I'm damn good at crunching numbers. A genius, actually," he said lightly.

"I think I might have heard that somewhere. But even geniuses make mistakes."

"Well, yeah. I'm thinking that's why you should be here to catch them…I mean, for a long time. Like, the rest of my life, maybe."

She kissed him lightly again. "I think that suits me just fine."

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**Author's note: **So, there it is. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review, because feedback helps me improve my writing and that's what I really want to do. And because awesome people review...and y'all are awesome.


	8. As Ready As I'm Going to Be

**Author's Note: **So, clearly there was a huge delay in this posting...I'm so so so (x130,000) sorry. I got distracted with work and a long illness and school and other fandoms (dodges flying objects) and didn't update. I'm really really really sorry for that. But here is another chapter, and I hope that you enjoy it. =)

Thanks to **Palliette, Switzerland_Swan, ender'sgame15, RonWeasleyismyking, BlackxValentine, xXMidnightFireHeartxX, Victorija, Maxennce, xXThe_Penny_TreasurexX, Amarin_Rose, Elisabpshady, mrscribble, strikergoalie1, and always a happy ending! **for the reviews! Y'all are awesome. Keep it coming.

* * *

Tony Stark didn't leave his house and go out in public for nearly three months after he was released from the hospital, and then he only left to go handle business related things. Iron Man hadn't been seen in that time, either. But Pepper Potts…well, Pepper Potts had been everywhere. She had been seen at Stark Industries, handling shipping matters and business deals. She had been seen at company warehouses overseeing the storage of classified materials. She had been seen at the grocery store buy lettuce, tomatoes, and hot sauce. She had been seen at the gas station filling her car—her silver Audi that she bought just before Tony had been kidnapped. The paparazzi were loving it.

Though Pepper was out and about, she always made sure that she was home—and the Stark estate was now home—in time for dinner. She hated to leave Tony at home for long periods of time, especially early on, but someone had to handle things and there was no one else that Tony trusted. So she went, she handled things, she came home and went to bed with Tony. They had fallen into a routine: he woke in the morning when Pepper left for work because he hated waking up to an empty house, he would get some work done during the day, and then he started dinner while waiting on Pepper to come home. He had actually gotten to be a fairly decent cook. Well, at least he was when Jarvis gave him proper instruction.

At first, Tony had started a routine because that was something that he had never had before. He did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it, and clearly that hadn't gone so well. So, with some help from Pepper, he made his own routine. He would wake up—eight o'clock, sharp—and eat a light breakfast, complete with coffee. He would work out, take his shower and work in his home office, which had previously never been used. The routine helped to keep the desire for a drink at bay, and made him far more productive than he had ever been. He was designing new technology: kill switches that would enable them to remotely deactivate a weapon before it reached the target, smaller arc reactors that could potentially power cars.

It was when the Board of Directors got antsy that Pepper began to go into the office to handle them. The Board was worried about their cash cow. He hadn't been seen in public in ages, and they weren't getting any new designs out of him. Pepper satisfied their demands by bringing in the drawings he had done, giving them to research and development to streamline the designs (though they hardly needed it), and talking to accounting to make sure it was monetarily feasible. After running through that process, she was able to present the designs to the Board of Directors—all of whom were thrilled at the ideas. Once they realized that Tony was still designing, they stopped panicking quite so much.

But eventually, he was going to have to leave the house, and both he and Pepper knew it. At some point in time, he was going to have to face the rest of the world and the questions that were waiting for him. This day finally came when Pepper walked through the front door one day, bags in hand, and made a beeline for the kitchen where she knew that she would find Tony up to his elbows in some type of edible creation. He knows that something isn't right when she doesn't bother to set her bags down before coming into the kitchen; instead, she drops them beside the refrigerator and tosses an envelope on the table. He stares at it for a moment before he speaks.

"What is it?" he finally asks.

"It's an invitation to the Fireman's Benefit," she answered plainly.

She didn't need to say anything more. He knew exactly what she was thinking. Every year, he donated money to the firemen, and every year he went to the charity ball. The problem was that everyone knew it: he knew, Pepper knew, the Board of Directors knew, and most of all…the press knew. The press surrounding his strange retreat from society was already bad enough; it would explode if he didn't go to the ball.

But Tony also knew that it was going to be a major temptation. There would be waiters walking by with trays of champagne, constantly offering one to their biggest contributor. He was usually on a first name basis with the bartender by the end of the evening. Last year, he had accepted the drinks and chatted up the bar tender. But he couldn't this year. He couldn't let all the struggle be for nothing. He couldn't have a drink, and it was going to be damn hard to say no. But he would do it. He would say no, and he wouldn't have a drink.

And someone was going to notice. Someone was going to notice, and it was going to explode. It would hit the tabloids first, and then the more legitimate media outlets were going to take notice. And then it was all downhill from there.

"I'll have to go," he said. "There really will be a media uproar if I don't."

"I know."

"There's going to be booze everywhere."

"I know. But you'll be fine. You're different now than you were when this started. You're stronger," she said, taking his hand comfortingly. She kissed his cheek and but could feel the frown spread across his face. He was unsure of himself. Uncertainty was not an expression that anyone got to see on Tony Stark's face. No one except Pepper, and she didn't particularly like it. This uncertainty that she saw now was different from the uncertainty she saw when he was choosing car parts or tweaking his armor. This was self-doubt, and she didn't like it.

"You'll be there too, right?" he asked, squeezing her hand. She nodded and smiled gently. "Then it won't be so bad. We'll be fine."

"Yeah," she whispered comfortingly. "We'll be fine."

He stood and wrapped his arms around her, taking comfort and reassurance from her touch. They stood there for a long moment, just holding each other. She ran her fingers through his hair—he loved it when she did that. He tried to think of everything that he would need for the fireman's benefit, but that wasn't really his cup of tea. Pepper normally took care of all those arrangements.

"When is it?" he asked.

"Two weeks. That's plenty of time for you to gear up for it."

"Are you going to be my date this year? I know that the press would have a field day with it, but I thought that ma—"

"Yes…I'll be your date this year," she said, kissing his forehead. He pulled away and studied her face, completely relieved by the expression he saw there. She was completely certain—certain she wanted to be seen in public with him, certain that she wanted to be here with him, certain that she didn't mind that he was a little bit broken.

"And next year?" he asked, a smile on his face.

"And next year."

"And the year after?"

"As long as you want me here, I'll be your date," she said, resting her forehead against his. "I'll always be here."

The two weeks leading up to the charity event were full for both of them. Pepper had to find a dress and get it altered. Tony already had a tux, so it wasn't a big problem. Keeping his mind off of the impending event and the challenges it posed—that was the problem. In years past, he would have poured himself a glass of the finest scotch and submerged himself in his workshop. This year, he was sitting in his home office, crunching numbers, trying not to dread the event.

Pepper was trying to think strategically—how could she keep him away from the booze without being too obvious about it? How was she to keep an eye out for Tony and still handle the other people that were going to be there? Well, she did that every other year, but this year she had to ensure that he didn't touch the booze instead of her usual task of keeping him from getting completely inebriated. She was going to have to be hyper-vigilant, and so was Tony.

Three days before the event, she had all of her plans laid out. The only thing that she didn't have laid out was her dress. She still hadn't chosen one—truthfully, she was hoping to pull one out of the back of her closet and wear it without having to get another one. Dress shopping was a drag. They never fit quite right without being altered and she didn't want to deal with the hassle.

"Have you gotten your dress yet?" Tony asked her that morning as she was drinking her coffee and looking over her various newspapers. She shook her head silently without looking up from what she was doing. He set his coffee cup down on the table and stared at her. "You haven't got your dress yet?"

"No, I haven't. I'm just going to wear one of my old ones. Maybe the one I wore to the Christmas party—"

"Absolutely not," he said immediately. "You've got time to find one and get an express tailoring job on it—"  
"Not that much time. Tailoring can take days to get done right," she answered.

"And you know as well as I do that money opens plenty of doors. Money is something that I happen to have a lot of."

"I don't even have a dress yet—"

"Actually, you do."

"I beg your pardon?" she asked, surprised. It was a pleasant sort of surprise, though.

"I might have ordered a dress for you when I saw that you hadn't done it yet. Because things are going to be hard enough without people saying, "Hey didn't you wear that dress at the…" You know how they get about who you're wearing and all that," he said with a smile. She smiled at his thoughtfulness, though she should have known. He had been secretive about a little too much this week.

"It would need to be altered."

"I know. That's why the tailor is on the way here."

She was laughing as she pulled him into her arms and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, loving the way that she felt against him. He lifted her off the ground, and spun her around as both of them laughed. They were interrupted as Jarvis announced the arrival of the tailor. Tony set Pepper down and hand in hand, they answered the door.

A short, dark-haired woman was standing at the door, sewing basket and measuring tapes in hand. Tony showed her in, and ten minutes later they were in the middle of Pepper's dress fitting. The dress was a brilliant midnight blue—a color that was tremendously flattering on the red head. There were some subtle sparkles, but nothing too flashy. It was the perfect dress for her. Three hours later, Pepper had been measured, the dress had been pinned, and the tailor was promising to have it back in forty-eight hours—just in time for the benefit.

The tailor didn't lie. The dress was delivered two mornings later, tailored and ready for Pepper to wear. The benefit started at eight, so Pepper and Tony were both up early trying to make sure that they had everything taken care of that could possibly need doing. By one o'clock all e-mails had been answered that were pressing, all drawings had been delivered to the proper people, and three separate budget crises had been averted. Having accomplished everything, Tony and Pepper did the only thing they could: napped.

They had settled down on the bed that had become theirs; it was not "Tony's bed" or "Pepper's bed." It was their shared domain where each was blissfully comfortable. Tony had his arm draped across Pepper's waist as she curled up against him. It didn't matter what position they fell asleep in because by the time they awoke, they would be in each other's arms. On nights when the other wasn't in bed for whatever reason, the other couldn't sleep.

Jarvis woke them at four thirty—in plenty of time to get ready. While Pepper showered—because honestly, women do take longer to get ready for these things—Tony was reheating leftovers. Going to one of these things on an empty stomach was a terrible idea. They sat down together for dinner and quickly ran over their plans.

"I've made sure that the bottle is in the car already, so you don't have to worry about that. Do you have your flask?" Pepper asked.

He nodded and pointed to wear the flask sat on the table beside the front door. "It's ready to go."

"Good," she said nodding. "How about you? How are you feeling?"

"Anxious. But you know what they say…give some razzle dazzle and they'll never notice," he answered with a nervous smile that looked more like a grimace. "I'm sure they'll be so distracted by the fact that I've actually showed up with you on my arm that they won't pay much attention to my drinking habits."

"True enough. It's going to be fine. I'll be right there if you need me."

"I know." He kissed her lightly and stood to go shower. She quickly finished her lasagna and made her way to another bathroom to get ready. Generally, she wouldn't go to so much trouble for a benefit, but she knew that all eyes were going to be on them tonight. If she looked like hell—or even the slightest disheveled—someone was going to notice, and they didn't want to attract even the slightest bit of negative attention. So she did the glamour thing: she curled her hair and pulled it out of her face. With her makeup, she pulled out all the stops: eyeliner, mascara, blush—she wore it all. Tastefully, of course. She slipped into the dress—which was surprisingly comfortable—put on her shoes, and grabbed her purse. Tony was waiting for her in the living room, already ready, of course.

"Where you been?" he asked teasingly.

"I had to get ready," she answered, as if he didn't already know.

"So did I."

"Well…you have a lot less hair to style than I do. Now, I do believe that Happy is waiting for us," she called over her shoulder as she headed to the car. He grinned and followed after.

Happy was waiting at the car, and opened the back door for them as he saw them approach. He could look at Pepper and see the difference that the past few months had made. She was happier. It didn't matter that she was still working too hard—she probably always would—she was glowing. There was an almost ever-present smile on her face; a real smile that reached all the way to her eyes. It was the kind of smile that gave people laugh lines. She wore it well.

Tony looked…well, like Tony. But he could see the difference in Tony, too. His boss had always been confident, but now he was more reassured. He was slightly more mellow—only slightly. His smile was more laid back, his body language more relaxed. And thank God the womanizing ways had stopped. Early morning runs to the dry cleaners to pick up the lady of the evening's clothes were never fun—though Pepper's company had made them bearable. Tony was smiling that special smile that he had for Pepper; the smile that said a million and one things that only Pepper could completely understand. He wore that smile well, too.

"You know where to go, Happy," Pepper said, sliding into the car.

"Of course." He couldn't keep the smile of his face, seeing them together. Smiling was contagious, it seemed.

Even at seven forty-five in the evening, traffic in LA was still hellacious. They were going to be late, but that was fine. No one ever expected Tony Stark to be on time, anyway. When they finally pulled up at the benefit forty-five minutes later, the red carpet was in full swing. Photographers were waiting, flashbulbs going off waiting to catch their every move. Any chance for a sneaky entrance was ruined by the "Stark 1" license plate on the back of the car. Tony reached for the door handle and turned to Pepper.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Are you?"

"As ready as I'm going to be."

"Then let's go," she whispered, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

With one last deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped out to face the world.


End file.
